Zakir Musa, who was heading the Hizbul Mujahideen, quit the militant outfit on Saturday after the group refused to back his statement warning that Hurriyat leaders would be beheaded for calling the Kashmir issue "political".

Srinagar: Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa, who on Friday threatened to slit the throats of Hurriyat leaders for calling the Kashmir issue "political", quit the militant outfit on Saturday after the group refused to back his statement.

Musa announced that he had severed all ties with Hizbul from Saturday, news agency IANS reported.

"Following my last audio message, a lot of confusion is being spread in Kashmir. I stand by my speech," Musa said in the latest audio clip released on social media.

Rift widens

On Saturday, Hizbul had said that it does not subscribe to Musa’s statement. "Such a statement (Musa's) is unacceptable to us. It reflects the personal opinion of Zakir Musa," Hizbul spokesperson Saleem Hashmi said in a statement emailed to a local news agency in Kashmir.

Reacting to the statement, Musa said in his audio message: "Hizbul Mujahideeen has said that we have nothing to do with the statement of Zakir Musa. So, if Hizbul Mujahideen doesn't represent me then I don't represent them, either. From today onwards, I have no association with Hizbul Mujahideen."

The Controversy

Musa, in his early 20s, said he had not said anything against a particular person or Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, "but I have spoken only against that individual who is against Islam and talks about freedom to establish a secular state".

"We are fighting for 'Azadi baraye Islam (Freedom for the sake of Islam)', I am fighting for freedom for the sake of Islam. My blood will spill for Islam and not for a secular state," he had said.

On Friday, in an audio, which went viral on social media, Zakir said: "I am warning all those hypocrite Hurriyat leaders. They must not interfere in our Islamic struggle. If they do, we will cut their heads and hang them in Lal Chowk."

He said he was clear in his motives of "fighting to impose a Shariat in Kashmir and not resolving the Kashmir issue by calling it a political struggle".

Musa, who took over Hizbul Mujahideen after the killing of Burhan Wani in July 2016, said on Friday that his organisation would chop off the heads of Hurriyat leaders and hang them in Srinagar's Lal Chowk for calling the Kashmir issue "political in nature" and not an "Islamic struggle".

Militants from the group are believed to be behind the killing of Kashmiri Army officer Ummer Fayaz earlier this week.